MIDDLE EAST:AT LEAST eight students were killed yesterday evening when a Palestinian gunman entered a Jewish religious seminary in Jerusalem and opened fire. The attack ended when the gunman was shot dead inside the seminary.
The Palestinian president condemned the attack. "President Mahmoud Abbas condemns the attack in Jerusalem that claimed the lives of many Israelis and he reiterated his condemnation of all attacks that target civilians, whether they are Palestinians or Israelis," said senior aide Saeb Erekat.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, which started at 8.30pm, it was still unclear exactly how the events inside the seminary had unfolded.
Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco said that an army officer who lived in the vicinity of the seminary had shot dead the gunman.
Yitzhak Dadon, a 40-year-old student at the seminary, said he had seen one gunman firing inside the seminary library with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and that he had shot the gunman twice in the head with his pistol. Mr Dadon added that a member of the security forces, who had arrived at the scene, "finished him off".
"I was learning when I heard shots," said Mr Dadon. "I cocked my pistol and went up on to the roof and waited for the terrorist. I saw blood and broken glass . . . I shot him twice in the head."
Israeli media reports said the gunman was a resident of Arab East Jerusalem.
At least 10 students were evacuated to hospital, three of whom were said to be in serious condition. Some of the students were injured after they jumped out of the windows of the seminary to escape the gunfire.
Eyewitnesses said the attack lasted between five and 10 minutes and that the gunman had fired "hundreds" of bullets inside the building.
Yeshivat Merkaz Harav, where the attack took place, is considered the flagship seminary of the national-religious movement in Israel.
Many of the rabbis who have studied there have gone on to become the ideological leaders of the settler movement in the West Bank. Several hundred students study at the seminary, most aged between 18 and 30.
In Gaza City, residents fired rifles in the air in celebration after hearing news of the attack and Hamas fighters said the shooting was "revenge" for Israel's military operation earlier this week in the coastal strip in which more than 100 Palestinians were killed.
Israel sent troops into the strip in a bid to halt the firing of rockets by militants at towns and cities in southern Israel.
"We bless the [ Jerusalem] operation. It will not be the last," Hamas said in a statement.
During the second Intifada uprising, there were regular suicide bombings and shooting attacks inside Israeli cities, but during the last three years the number of attacks has dropped off dramatically.